“Assuredly, madame; I was with him at the station.”

“And you think no one saw him?”

“No one, madame, but myself.”

“And—what kind of a man was he?”

Monsieur Ribaud lifted his shoulders, threw out his hands despairingly, yet with a world of significance, and said:—

“An American.”

“Ah!”

The carriage drove on and entered the gates of the chateau. And Monsieur Ribaud, cafe proprietor and Social Democrat, straightened himself in the dust and shook his fist after it.

[ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]

A NIGHT ON THE DIVIDE